The invention concerns apparatus for enhancing the friction between the surface of a saddle horn and the rope used in cattle roping, for the purpose of adequately securing the rope to the saddle horn while also minimizing the number of times the rope must be looped about the horn.
When a cowboy ropes a horse, steer or other large animal while on horseback, he needs to very rapidly secure the rope to the saddle horn of his saddle, so as to be able to stop the roped animal. Because of the large weight of the roped animal, which may be running rapidly away from the cowboy's horse, very large forces are often exerted along the rope as the roped animal is being brought to a halt. It has been customary for the cowboy to wrap the rope one or more times around the saddle horn, to adequately secure the rope to the saddle horn by friction. Depending on the nature of the material of which the saddle horn is made, it may not afford sufficient friction unless the rope is looped around the horn several times, e.g. for a leather saddle horn. This presents a risk of rope burns and possibly even loss of fingers during the multiple looping process, as a result of the very large forces exerted along the rope by the animal being captured.
To deal with these problems, two approaches have previously been employed, as described in documents appended to applicant's Information Disclosure Statement. One has involved the practice of wrapping a strip of rubber several times around the saddle horn, so that better friction can be provided, by the rope/rubber interface, than would be provided by the rope/leather interface, in the case of a leather saddle horn with no wrapping. However, this approach has the disadvantage that the large forces exerted along the rope by the animal being halted, cause the rubber stripping to be strongly twisted about the saddle horn, due to the resulting torque. So the rubber stripping will often work loose, and often have to be rewrapped around the saddle horn.
Another prior art approach has been the use of a specially designed saddle horn, having a rubber outer layer, and having a special internal design of a form to resist twisting of the rubber layer about the axis of the saddle horn. But this approach offers nothing to allow rope friction enhancement in the use of a saddle and saddle horn of conventional design, lacking such a special design for the saddle horn.
So there is a need for a simple, inexpensive fitting which may be very simply and securely affixed to the exterior of a conventional saddle horn, to provide adequate friction with the rope with only one loop being made about the horn. And there is a need for such a fitting which will very tightly fit the saddle horn, so as to resist twisting forces and torque exerted by the rope, and which will have an upper forward portion fitting under the forwardly projecting cap of the saddle horn, to afford an additional means of securing the fitting to the saddle horn, and resisting forces tending to lift the fitting off of the horn.
There is also a need for such a fitting of a form at the bottom which will, when installed on the saddle horn, make a flush fit against the top of the pommel beneath the saddle horn, so as to prevent the rope from working under the bottom edge of the fitting; since, if the rope can work under the fitting, it would tend to lift the fitting off of the saddle horn, or work its way to the leather of the saddle horn, reducing friction.
These needs are met by applicant's invention, a single seamless hollow sleeve of vulcanized rubber, of a form suitably matching the pommel and saddle horn geometry but sufficiently undersized that it will, when installed on the horn, very tightly fit the horn, while yet having a large enough inside diameter that it can be installed on the horn, with use of suitable lubrication such as soap.